Friday, July 21, 2017

With book two of her Bai Hsu series, Erika Mitchell picks up
right where the previous installment, Bai
Tide: A Bai Hsu Mystery, ended. Seemingly
blackballed and punished for his North Korean operation from Take the Bai Road, Bai finds himself flung
into an off books operation that threatens both his life and his career as he
is sent to investigate a new Ghost Cartel that has set up shop in Mexico.

Here, Mitchell places her operative in the center of Mexican
drug cartels following a mysterious shipment. Between gunfights, car chases,
and lies, Bai follows a shipment that reaches all the way from North Korea into
the inner confines of the US Government. A fight on a freighter leads to a
terrorist plot and covert government infiltration, ideas that come easily to
the author. While some ends remain loose, Mitchell creates a satisfying and complex
story that stretches the limits of her spy’s abilities and twists and turns at
nearly every stop.While I typically dig into the inner workings of plot in my reviews, such actions would spoil the overall plot in this instance.

As in her previous installment, Mitchell keeps the pace
moving. The pages fly by as Bai goes on one adventure after another and the
world lines up for him time and time again. One minute he is gunning down pursuant
drug dealers only later to seek solace and use them as a cover of sorts. That said, he faces a limitless list of
challenges and seemingly escapes with little to no damage. Yet, for a spy novel,
such facts are to be expected. For a quick, fun read, give this one a look.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Naomi Novik’s Victory of
Eagles details the consequences of Temeraire and Laurence’s choice to save
the French dragons as Empire of Ivory came
to an end. With the war in full bore and the French invading England, Temeraire
languishes in the breeding grounds while Laurence is a deckhand on the very
ship he captained before being chosen as Temeraire’s captain. Each misses the other
and Laurence awaits the hangman’s noose once Temeraire can be fully pacified.

But with the invasion, Temeraire refuses to sit idly and
leads his breeding ground compatriots into the field in order to make a
difference. At the same time, Laurence is commissioned as a prisoner captain
and begins searching for dragon steed. Thus the adventure begins, once that
will result in dragon rights, mass retreats, epic battles, and a final showdown
with Napoleon himself. As always, Novik dazzles, and the shimmer turns the
pages with reckless abandon.

Presidential Conclusions,
by Douglas J. Wood, finishes up the three part Samantha Harrison series. Much
like the novel’s predecessors, Wood places terrorism front and center for the
novel. Unlike in previous editions, the reader seemingly spends more time with
the terrorists than the political protagonists themselves. While Presidential Intentions set the scene by establishing
Harrison as an icon and Presidential
Declarations sported a terrorist attack that ravaged Washington DC, the
nation’s government, and tested Harrison’s resolve, in this edition Harrison is
firmly entrenched as the nation’s president. Outside of this fact, Harrison has
begun a crusade to redraw country lines and subdivide the Muslim world.

Beyond this peace creating drive, Harrison seeks council in former
presidents. By creating a presidential council of sorts, she activates former
Presidents Bush, Clinton, and Clinton. While Obama is blacklisted from the
novel by Wood’s obvious political prejudices, Harrison seeks council in these
former political leaders and even uses them as political pack mules at times
(which knowing their real life personas, is surprising at times). Yet the plot
fixates on terror, the jihad, the evil of evil in the author’s mind. He creates
an elaborate terror program, one tied to the attacks that took place in 2019,
and then uses foreign extradition and torture to extract knowledge. Perhaps
more than the other two novels, Wood’s political slants appear, yet he still
crafts Harrison as a political moderate. In her, the country gets a leader they
can trust even if they do not love her.

That said, Wood crafts a fitting conclusion to his series
here. While Amanda Harrison still lacks character development, she plays her
role well. Watts’ loss is savage and unpredictable, a great story telling
twist, but the reaction rings contrary both to what society and Harrison herself
had been set up to yield. Torture is dealt with, but not with love or hate, but
with an antiseptic feel. Terror, torture, bombings, they happen in this world,
and Harrison is tailor made to deal with their plights.